A 29-inch-high statue? Chapter 16

 A 29-inch-high statue?

A statue of Our Lady of Consolation at a chapel in Belgium

                    

Our Lady of Luxembourg, Consolatrix Afflictorum, stands 73 centimeters high. That's about 29 inches. The statue at Scherpenheuvel is also rather small. Didn't the people of this region love Mary enough to make a 7-foot marble statue? Why 29 inches and wood with fabric?

29-inch high, wooden statues are easy to move and easy to hide. (Perhaps even in a tree away from town. In a place known only to the locals.) Over the centuries wooden statues of Mary went into hiding or behind the walls of fortified cities many times. That is how they survived. The iconoclasts and the enlightened folks wanted to destroy them. Woke folks like to destroy and rewrite history. They strive to erase any traces of religion. They hate the old statues and want to replace them. Post card size copper engravings, like the one in Kevelaer, are also easy to move and easy to hide.

When it became safe again, the small wooden statues would come out of hiding. Large, stone statues didn't always make it. They were much harder to move or hide.  And much harder to replace. The small wooden statues with elaborate clothing were easy to hide and it was easy to make copies. The clothes could be made by anybody skilled in elaborate embroidery. A skill that was not uncommon in that era.  To defend large stone statues that must remain in place required an army. To hide the smaller wooden statues required only a few devout people. 

St. Louis de Montfort's writings only survived the French revolution because they were buried in a trunk in a field. They were accidently discovered many years later. How much have we lost? How much history was destroyed or remains hidden?

de Monfort's writings hidden

Saint Pope John Paul II was influenced by the writings of St. Louis de Montfort. Because of the influence of John Paul II, I have a collection of St. Louis de Montfort's books. His writings have influenced my own Marian devotion. 

A family member tried to trace our family history in Belgium. They were working with a cousin whose family had stayed in Belgium.  I have a letter from that cousin from the 1970s. In it he explains that there are hardly any records available before 1830 because of the French revolution in 1789. Belgium was occupied by the French until 1815.